- News: Jorge Lorenzo announces his retirement: "The day has come"
Jorge Lorenzo says goodbye to motorcycling after the most difficult season of his career. The bad results, marked by his lack of adaptation to the Honda and injuries, especially the fracture of two vertebrae he suffered in Assen , had raised rumors of withdrawal that was frightening as he could. Finally, he says goodbye at age 32 with five titles under his arm, two in 250cc with Aprilia (2006, 2007) and three in the premier category with Yamaha (2010, 2012, 2015).
The youngest debutante
Jorge Lorenzo had to wait until he turned 15 to be able to debut at the Motorcycle World Championship. The next day, on May 5, 2002, he stood on the starting line of the Grand Prix of Spain with his Derbi number 48 - his first number, that of his then manager Dani Amatriain. Years later, the Jerez circuit would baptize a curve in its name. That afternoon finished 22nd. Four races later, at the Circuit de Catalunya, Lorenzo would also be the youngest driver to score in the missing 125cc. His best result would be seventh place in Brazil.
His first victory
Jorge Lorenzo's first win in the eighth of the book would have to wait more than a year. His second campaign was not being easy either: he had retired in five of the first 11 tests and in two others he had entered the top 20. Until in Rio de Janeiro, where the previous year had already been seventh, he sealed his first victory by imposing a great final duel on Dani Pedrosa and Casey Stoner. The following season, his last in 125cc, he would achieve three more wins: Assen, Brno and Losail.
His first World Cup
Jorge Lorenzo jumped to 250cc in 2005 but, as had happened in 125cc, he closed his debut without victories. For the second season, the team that led Amatriain traded the Honda for Aprilia and the Palmesan rider responded by winning the first two races. Lorenzo won eight tests and none of his rivals passed two, but the regularity of Andrea Dovizioso stretched the emotion until the last race. The Balearic clasped his first crown with a fourth place in Cheste. The following year he repeated with more authority: nine wins and 12 podiums.
Grand premiere in MotoGP
Jorge Lorenzo landed in MotoGP in 2008 as Valentino Rossi's partner in Yamaha. His relationship with the Italian, which was then at its fullest, was always at least complicated, although that remains for another chapter. The emergence of the Mallorcan in the queen category was thunderous: pole in the first three races and first triumph to the third, in Estoril. With that triumph, he beat Dani Pedrosa as the youngest rider on the podium in the first three MotoGP races and tied with the Catalan as the World Cup leader. However, falls and injuries would keep him from fighting for the crown.
First MotoGP World Championship and consecration
Jorge Lorenzo's great consecration came in 2010, his third season in the premier class: nine wins and 16 podiums in 18 races. The only two times he did not climb into the drawer (Alcañiz and Motegi) finished fourth. In total 383 points, a historical record that has remained in force until Marc Márquez has managed to tear it down this year. Valentino Rossi broke his leg in Mugello, the fourth race of the course, but the superiority of the Balearic was unquestionable.
The rivalry with Rossi
When Lorenzo arrived at Yamaha, Bridgestone had a wall built in the box to separate the two drivers and prevent the Mallorcan team from picking up data on their tires. That wall ended up being a good metaphor, because the relationship between the two has been tense until recently. Perhaps the first big public clash was in 2010 in Motegi, when at a press conference Lorenzo affected the Italian a dangerous overtaking "When you have a great fight on the last lap and you lose, it is normal for me to give you an ass," Rossi replied. At the end of the course, Valentino went to Ducati.
The Lorenzo curve
In 2013 the Jerez Circuit renamed the 'Ducats Curve' as 'Lorenzo Curve'. It is the 13th of the layout of the Grand Prix of Spain, a turn to the left that has seen great duels such as that of Mick Doohan with Álex Crivillé in 1996, that of Valentino Rossi with Sete Gibernau in 2005 ... Or that Lorenzo himself, then current world champion, he lived in 2012 with a rookie, Marc Márquez. On the stage of his debut Lorenzo has achieved five wins (three in MotoGP and two in 250cc) and seven poles.
Cheste, first and last World Cup
In 2015 Lorenzo reached the last World Cup race in second position seven points behind Valentino Rossi, but with a card in his sleeve: the Italian would have to start the race in last position as punishment for his famous kick to Marc Márquez in Malaysia. The Balearic took the pole, broke the circuit record and, although the wear of the tires made him suffer in the last laps, he took the victory and the crown. Cheste, where this Thursday has announced his goodbye to motorcycling, was the scene of his first World Cup and the last.
Assen, beginning of the end
After a bad first year in Ducati, where he lived his first season in white in MotoGP, Lorenzo resurfaced in 2018 and this season surprised signing for Honda. The new stage did not start well: in January an arm was fractured doing dirt track and much of the preseason was lost. It was the first of many physical problems he has suffered this year. The most serious, the one who suffered in Assen, where two vertebrae fractured. An injury from which he could not recover.
The worst race of his life
The back injury forced Jorge Lorenzo to miss the appointments of Germany, the Czech Republic and Austria, but neither before nor later did he feel comfortable with the Honda. The Balearic Islands hit bottom three weeks ago in Phillip Island, where Marc Márquez finished last more than a minute and more than 20 seconds past the penultimate. Almost at the same time that his teammate crossed the finish line, he began the last lap. It was the worst race of his life.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
Know more- Jorge Lorenzo
Motorcycling 2019 What Jorge Lorenzo was missing: Marc Márquez's anger and his possible substitute is already faster
Motorcycling 2019Honda signs a possible substitute for Jorge Lorenzo: the story of a heartbreak
Motorcycling 2019 Jorge Lorenzo announces his retirement: "The day has come"